Six months for Kelantan to fully recover from floods, says MB

A villager removes ruined items from his house damaged by the floods in Manik Urai, Kelantan. Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yaakob says it will take at least six months to rebuild the flood damage areas. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 2, 2015.

Kelantan will need at least six months to fully recover from the devastation of the worst floods that hit the state in the past few weeks, said its Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yaakob.

Utusan Malaysia reported today that the state was also in dire need of aid from Putrajaya to help the victims get back on their feet again and rebuild the infrastructure.

"We are in the midst of gathering data on the victims affected by the tragedy and will categorise them accordingly based on the losses and damages sustained. At the moment, we estimated that about 1,500 houses were completely destroyed.

"We are also identifying sites to be used as temporary shelters during the rebuilding," he was quoted as saying in the Malay daily.

Ahmad said a post-flood special committee also held a meeting to discuss urgent measures to take to speed up the rebuilding effort.

"About RM50,000 has been allocated to the local councils to clean up their respective areas as soon as possibile to avoid the spread of water-borne diseases," he said.

Earlier, the east coast state flood disaster management director, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed was quoted in The Star as saying that some RM200 million in losses had been reported in Kelantan.

The worst hit areas were Gua Musang, Kuala Krai, Tanah Merah, Tumpat, Pasir Mas and Kota Baru.

- TMI